Institute of Low Temperature Science,
Hokkaido University, Japan

Cemagref, Grenoble, France

I was a post-doc from October 1998 to March 1999 in
Cemagref , a government research organisation for engineering
and agriculture in the environment (La Rechercge pour l'Ingenierie
de l'Arigculture et de l'Environnement). The ETNA division within
Cemagref (division Erosion Torrentielle Neige et Avalanches) has
responsibility for research into avalanche hazard and snow
transport in France.

I worked with Mohammed Naaimon on comparing saltation models
with wind tunnel and field experiments. The aim was to improve the
quantative understanding of non-steady, non-stationary snow
transport in order to accurately predict snow erosion and
deposition from meteorological data. This is important for snow
control work, but also for avalanche forcasting since most
avalanche accidents are wind-slab avalanches. An important part
of forcasting these avalanches without direct observation is a
quantatitive theory of snow transport. Saltation

The genesis of powder snow avalanches is also thought to
sometimes arise from a saltation layer on the surface of a dense
avalanche. A saltation theory for snow can thus be used in a layer
avalanche model where an avalance is modelled as a dense layer and
a suspension cloud with a saltation layer in between. Snow Avalanches Simulations.